The Black Clergy's Misguided Worship Leadership

“‘Jesus worship’ is equivalent to ‘white male worship’ and is detrimental to the mental and emotional health of black people,” argues Dr. Christopher C. Bell Jr. In this book, Dr. Bell cites cogent educational and behavioral reasons to explain why and how the glorification and worship of the ancient, Roman-made, white male, Christian idol, Jesus Christ is not only idolatrous, but how such worship subliminally makes black people complicit in their own psychological oppression. Specifically, Dr. Bell provides information to show that:

a. The “Jesus Christ” worshipped by black people is the ancient, Roman-made, white male, idol god created by Roman Emperor Constantine and church bishops of the Roman Church at the Nicene Council (CE 325), and hundreds of years later, white slave masters Christianized (or taught) their black slaves to worship this same white male idol god; whereas now the white male image of “Jesus Christ” is deeply ingrained in the psyche of both black and white people.
b. The Jesus worshipping (white male worshipping) culture of the black community subliminally afflicts many black people with a deleterious white superiority syndrome (WSS) that leads to low self esteem, psychological dissonance, and emotional and spiritual depression resulting in self-limiting beliefs and aberrant behavior such as; low academic achievement motivation among black adolescents, mutual alienation between black men and women, increased feelings of hate toward whites and other blacks, and increased stress and other health related problems in black males;
c. The Jesus worshipping (white male worshipping) customs of the black community reinforces, in both white and black people, the racist notion of white male superiority in the same ways as white racial discrimination and white racial aggression;
d. The white male worshipping (Jesus worshipping) folkways of the black community are mentally oppressive and emotional emasculating to many young black men who after years of embedment in such a culture feel alienated, demeaned, and angry, and react in ways that lead to high rates of recalcitrance, self abuse, crime, violence, and incarceration;
e. The Jesus worship (white male worship) tradition within the black community is a black clergy-administered carryover from black peoples’ past experiences as chattel slaves, and this tradition unwittingly ensures that black people continue to learn and believe, as their slave masters would insist, that “whiteness and the white male Christian power structure are anointed and approved by God”; a result that now leads to behavior and sentiments on the part of many black people that is reflective of a slave mentality and a “low caste group” self-image;
f. The Jesus worshipping (white male worshipping) culture within the black community subliminally diminishes and demeans black manhood while buttressing, elevating, and glorifying white manhood; a result that stokes a latent anger, a temperament of violence, and self-injurious behavior in many young black men while promoting a sense of racial superiority in many white men.
Dr. Bell argues that to neutralize the above negative effects of “Jesus worship,” the black clergy must stop teaching black people to glorify and worship Jesus Christ and begin teaching them a “new Christianity” that espouses WORSHIPPING ONLY GOD the creator and sustainer of life and recognizes Jesus as a human being and prophet. Why? Because this “new Christianity” would promote Jesus Christ from the status of an unbelievable, make-believe, superstition-based, supernatural, extra-terrestrial god-character to the status of a believable, historically feasible, real life human being and prophet; and young black men will be able to relate to a “Prophet Jesus” and to his teachings with a sense of rationality, human commonality, and self-respect. None of these relationships is possible between today’s Christianity and young black men.
Dr. Bell explains that the “new Christianity” is a crucial intellectual and cultural transformation that black people must undertake if they are to ever liberate themselves from the damaging psychological effects of the white superiority syndrome that results from their white male worshipping folkways. He explains further that the black clergy will be reluctant to change and that change will come only when black community uplift organizations (NAACP, ASALH, NUL, SCLC, NNPA, etc.) decide to work together to persuade the black clergy to stop “Jesus worship” and begin “God worship only.” Dr. Bell argues that the “new Christianity” will promote the religious enlightenment and psychological liberation of black people and mediate downward the high rates of recalcitrance, anti-social temperament, and violence among many young black men and thus reduce their plight and plunge toward incarceration.

About the Author: Christopher C. Bell Jr., Ed.D. is a long time observer and analyst of the motivational and behavioral effects of religious educational programs on black people. He has managed, analyzed, and evaluated educational and motivational programs in the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Labor, the District of Columbia Public School System, and the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Bell earned a Doctor Education (Ed.D.) degree from Boston University Graduate School of Education.